Paul Heyman may not be “Classy” or “The Brain” or a “Grand Wizard” nor was he ever a “Captain” or the “Mouth of the South” but that was because Paul Heyman was so much more. How much more? Just keep reading, as the resume just keeps increasing. And just to give you a glimpse, Heyman owns the record for managing the most WWE Superstars to World Champions with 6. The Big Show, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, and Roman Reigns. That is just his WWE credentials, but his 40 year wrestling career starts way before WWE.

Photographer

There is no Paul Heyman without how his career began as a photographer. As a fast talking teenager he talked his way back stage during a World Wide Wrestling Federation event at Madison Square Garden. While there, he took photos, and was actually paid for them by WWWF. He then graduated high school, went to SUNY Purchase where he became a controversial (Heyman….controversial?) radio host for that and WARY-FM New York radio stations. He then parlayed that into, at 19 years old, becoming a photographer, producer and promoter for the famous New York City nightclub Studio 54.

Publisher and Writer

He published his own newsletter called The Wrestling Times Magazine and wrote articles for third party organizations such as Pro Wrestling Illustrated. He did this at age 14. He famously too photographs of three “heel” managers in WWWF; Lou Albano, Freddie Blassie, and the Grand Wizard who were known at the time as the “Three Wise Men.” I could not find any evidence of it, but I would love to ask if that is why he is referred to as the “Wise Man” in his current WWE on screen role.

Host

This one will be a short entry, but it was very important and impressive. I mentioned earlier that he became producer and promoter for Studio 54. Those duties also included host. Heyman hosted the first ever Wrestle Party 85 Show. Where he actually called the wrestling famous Jim Crockett who then sent him Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, and Magnum T.A. But, possibly more important to the career of Paul Heyman, the show included a debut of a new wrestler, Bam Bam Bigelow.

Manager

Heyman actually made his managerial debut on January 2nd 1987 for the Northest Independent Circuit before moving on to Championship Wrestling of Florida. He was pushed to do these two stops in his career by Bigelow. Two very important things happened for him at CWF. He became Paul E. Dangerously because of his resemblance to the Michael Keaton character in the movie Johnny Dangerously, and he met a guy by the name of Kevin Sullivan.

“The most creative genius the business has ever seen”

ECW wrestler Raven

Back in these days of wrestling, in the middle to late 80’s, wrestling companies were still divided up into territories. I say this because in this time in his career, Heyman worked as a manager for multiple promotions, and some of the promotions multiple times. CWF, AWA (American Wrestling Association), another wrestling territory that went by the apreviation CWF that stood for, Continental Wrestling Federation and Windy City Wrestling.

From 1988 to early 1993 Paul worked for Jim Crockett Promotions where he managed the Original Midnight Express and a guy named “Mean” Mark Callous. While there he also met fellow manager Jim Cornette and did announcing with Jim Ross (announcing will be covered later). In 1991, WCW wanted to restructure their “heels” and to do so, they called on Paul E. Dangerously. Heyman formed what we now call a faction today, in the Dangerous Alliance.

The Dangerous Alliance included; Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, Madusa and “Stunning” Steve Austin. Heyman was fired by WCW in February of 1993. He then filled a wrongful termination lawsuit against the company which was settled out of court.

From Teacher to being in charge of creative direction

“Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert brought in Heyman to a subsidiary of the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) called Eastern Championship Wrestling to work with new talent on how to be better in interviews and promos. Gilbert was fired a few months later and Heyman was placed in charge of creative direction. About a year later, the NWA was only being kept afloat by ECW under the leadership of Paul Heyman. Because of this in 1984 there was a NWA World Title Tournament at an event with mostly ECW talent. Heyman and Tom Gordon who owned the ECW portion of NWA decided to crown current ECW Champion, “The Franchise” Shane Douglas the NWA Champion as well. All that led to this….

owner

The same week Heyman and Gordon decided to eliminate the territorial distinction from ECW and replace the word Eastern with the word Extreme. A few months later Heyman bought out Gordon, and the true Heyman version of ECW was born. Blood, chairs, tables, fire, and anything else you could think of was suddenly legal inside and outside the squared circle. But, Heyman being the sole financial backer was also his greatest downfall in ECW. He came up with innovative and creative ways to promote wrestling in bingo halls in front of a few hundred people, and his deep pocket competition simply copied him in front of thousands of fans at arenas with a much bigger production budget.

Heyman did a find an unusual partner in Vince McMahon. McMahon had some wrestlers who needed more seasoning, and Heyman had some wrestlers that McMahon was interested in. Heyman actually rented certain wrestlers to McMahon, and that influx of cash was able to keep ECW running until Paul could no longer keep the company afloat and after entering bankruptcy in 2001 WWF (World Wrestling Federation) bought ECW in 2003.

“We popularized Mysterio versus Psicosis. We popularized Malenko versus Guerrero. We innovated the tap-out instead of ‘I Quit’ in professional wrestling and sports entertainment with the character of Taz.” 

ECW owner, Paul Heyman

Commentator

Jerry Lawler was fired by WWF because he was upset about a situation involving his real life wife at the time, known on WWF television as The Kat. This allowed Paul to again work behind the microphone with Jim Ross. During this time Heyman recreated ECW as a WWF stable. The storyline eventually saw him get fired following the 2001 Survivor Series when the merged group of ECW and the purchased group from WCW by Shane McMahon lost a winner takes all match. Ironically, Heyman was again replaced on commentary by the returning Jerry Lawler.

“He was a really good antagonist because sometimes the best antagonists are the villains that say things that you know are true but you just don’t want to hear them. Heyman had the ability to tell his version of the truth, [he was] plausible. He just wasn’t a heel getting himself over, he got talent over and did a great job.”

WWE Commentator Jim Ross

Lead Writer

Heyman was then placed behind the scenes and off camera as the lead writer for the Smackdown brand. Vince supposedly did this because he wanted real competition between the two shows. According to Paul himself in his 2014 documentary Ladies and Gentleman, My Name is Paul Heyman, that his Smackdown brand was beating Raw in ratings, merchandise, and live show attendance.

Tazz, who worked with Heyman previously in ECW told Paul about a development wrestler. Paul then took a liking to this wrestler and with him by his side this wrestler became champion in only 126 days after his debut beating The Rock (full circle moment) at Summer Slam. That wrestler was Brock Lesnar.

After turning on Lesnar and going with The Big Show, becoming Smackdown General Manger, and being drafted to Raw to work with Eric Bischoff he quit the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) saying he would not work for the guy who raided ECW of talent and caused it to fold when he was with WCW.

Head Booker

This entry will be very short. Paul then took the job, for a short while as head booker of then OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling) which was the AAA of sorts for WWE. The only reason I am going to mention this, is because while he was there, he struck up a real-life friendship with a certain wrestler in OVW, and his name is CM Punk.

The First Third Brand

Heyman came back to WWE with the announcement that ECW was returning. Heyman was in charge of the new brand on camera, but little influence behind the scenes. The first pay per view, ECW One Night Stand was very successful, but the brand itself was not. This led to several arguments and disagreements between McMahon and Heyman. Soon thereafter, both Heyman and ECW were gone.

Paul Heyman Guys

After a five or so year hiatus from WWE Heyman returned to manage again. He did this primarily with three guys. CM Punk, Brock Lesnar and someone you may not remember in Michael McGillicutty, or Curtis Axel (who is actually Kurt Hennig’s son) but he was far from perfect. He just never got over with the crowd.

Heyman eventually became the “Advocate” for Brock. He did this until WrestleMania 36 when Drew McIntyre beat Lesnar for the title in front of no one because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lesnar was then a free agent and did not sign back with WWE.

Special Council Wise Man

From August 28th 2020 until the present Paul Heyman has been the “Special Council” and the “Wise Man” of the faction known as the Bloodline. Not only is he all these things for the Bloodline, he is also the creative mind behind most of the on air directions behind the layered story.

Heyman has had a long relationship with the Anoa’i wrestling family, going back to the start of his career as a photographer, when he used to ride to WWF shows with the Wild Samoans, and the late ’80s, when he managed the Samoan SWAT Team (which included Fatu, a.k.a. Rikishi, the father of the Usos).

No matter what happens at WrestleMania 40, Heyman has promised in several interviews since he was announced as the 1st inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame, that the Bloodline storyline is far from over. So his resume is far from being written.

Photo Credits; Wrestling Observer, The Eagle’s Cry, The Ringer, 411Mania, WhatCulture.com

Editoral Credits; Parts of this article came from a pieces in The Ringer by Phil Schneider and from Wikipedia

By : Ballentine